TERRACYCLE is calling on local community centres, schools and businesses to register, for free, as a collection point for ‘unrecyclable’ items and raise money for non-profit groups. These items can then be recycled into sustainable items or materials and, with 21.3million tones of waste sent to landfill each year, it is an opportunity for local residents and groups to send their waste to a public collection point. The unrecyclable items include toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, cleaning and beauty product pumps, triggers and wipes, cigarette waste and coffee capsules. These items are currently being diverted from landfill. General Manager of TerraCycle Australia, Anna Minns said everyone should think about getting involved. “National Recycling Week and the Christmas period is the perfect time to learn more about recycling and how to get involved in your local community,” she said. “TerraCycle believes anything can and should be recycled and we have developed solutions for waste that are deemed unsavoury or difficult to recycle, such as cigarette butts. “Since TerraCycle’s launch in March on Clean Up Australia Day we have collected more than three million cigarette butts as well as other unrecyclable waste. “We’ve saved this from landfill, thanks mainly to local litter groups, workplaces, community centres and households.” Interested groups are encouraged to register on the TerraCycle website as donations will be given towards a local group or cause. For every piece of waste collected and dropped off at your local collection point two cents goes towards a great local cause or non profit. To register as a collection point, go to www.terracycle.com.au.

Anna Minns is General Manager of Terracycle Australia, a company dedicated to creating recycling solutions for just about anything. What’s involved in developing a recycling solution for “difficult” waste like the Nescafé capsules? More often than not, companies approach us about a solution for their product’s waste stream. Nescafé Dolce Gusto joined with TerraCycle to provide a second life for used Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules, so Australians can now collect, store and ship their capsules from home or work for free. For the current Nescafé Dolce Gusto Capsule Brigade we do not collect any other brand of capsules, only Nescafé Dolce Gusto capsules. If consumers are interested in a particular waste stream we suggest they let their favourite brand know about TerraCycle’s work! We hope in time to be collecting more and more “unrecyclable” waste. Can goodwill be infectious enough for the majority of manufacturing companies to take responsibility for end of life of their product, or will they need to be pushed into it by legislation? As the circular economy is increasingly gaining traction in our region many companies are looking to circular solutions rather than linear solutions of ‘take, make, then dispose’. TerraCycle works with many major FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies, as well as small brands, to create a voluntary product stewardship scheme that diverts everyday consumer products and packaging that are difficult to recycle such as toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, coffee capsules and even cigarette butts, from landfill, and instead into new products creating circular solutions. The recycling system creates a collection model open to the public. Australia has one of the highest rates of waste generation per capita in the world and in fact, world waste is also expected to double by 2025. Government schemes and extended producer responsibility laws may be slow in coming to effect to deal with growing waste issues. TerraCycle’s solutions are readily available and the onus is on both brands to consider a solution to an increasing problem as well as consumers to use their buying power as a ‘vote’ for sustainability. What would you nominate as the most unlikely or surprising items that you have created recycling solutions for? Cigarettes, chewing gum, feminine hygiene products and nappies! TerraCycle has proven that (almost) anything can and should be recycled. Do you get to shovel rotting food to the worms occasionally? No. But we are offering a copy of Tom’s book “Revolution in a Bottle” for a Switch Report reader that outlines the origins of TerraCycle as a company turning worm poop into fertilizer! To win a copy of Revolution in a Bottle by Terracycle’s founder Tom Szaky, just sign up for our newsletter by midnight on Sunday 16 November, and you’ll be in the draw. If you are already on our mailing list you don’t need to do anything. You are automatically entered.

As Phase One of the ’200 Stories’ project wraps up, Edge Environment is pleased to have engaged with 200 businesses in the Northern Beaches to reduce waste going to landfill. Over the last four months Edger’s have been out and about talking to local businesses about their current waste and recycling set up. The Team identified opportunities for businesses to not only reduce the amount of waste going to landfill but also save money by reducing their bin lifts or general waste collection. Some great stories have evolved from the 200 Stories project. A few are captured below. The Shop Next Door: The Shop Next Door in Manly are recycling 100% of their used coffee grinds by re-bagging them and giving them to customers for their compost and worm farms. They have also signed up to the Terracycle Brigade and are recycling cigarettes from the Laundromat one shop down so the butts don’t end up in storm water and in the ocean. They have started to separate soft plastic packaging from the apparel and surfboards. They have reduced their general waste bin contents by half, and over 12 months this will equate to 13,000kg of general waste diverted from landfill. Mitchel Bro’s 4X4: Aaron from Mitchel Bro’s has reduced his general waste collection significantly since the Bin Trim action plan was put in place. He has reduced his general waste collection from once per week to once a month by recycling plastic car bumper bars, soft plastic packaging/bubble wrap and engine oil filters. The plastic car bumper bars would take up 80% of the bins contents these are now being picked up by a bumper recycler who reconditions them or donates them to a recycler to create new products. Aaron is now saving $1500 on his annual waste bill’s and is recycling an additional 35,000 litres of waste annually but more importantly is really happy about increasing his business recycling efforts. ‘The plan is working really well, we’ve already had a couple of hard plastics collections and the team know exactly what they’ve gotta do now and it’s really saving us a heap of time, money and resources. We’ve found the biggest improvement so far in the removal of the soft plastics, I didn’t realise how much space they really consumed in the general waste.” Email Quote from Aaron Mitchell- Mitchel Bro’s 4×4 Edge Environment is proud to be working locally to provide long term sustainability solutions in the Northern Beaches. The next phase of the project involves supporting businesses to implement the Bin Trim Action Plans and then completing follow up waste assessments to determine the landfill savings.

In exchange, they receive positive PR and “a nice feather in their hat, if you will, as it pertains to corporate social responsibility,” Mr Szaky said.

Manchester Primary School students have become class acts when it comes to wielding magic to turn trash into treasure.  ‘‘Locals can send their collections to TerraCycle for free to be recycled into bright, fun and sustainable items by dropping them off at the school.

Over one million cigarette butts have been collected by consumers, anti-litter groups and businesses since the launch of global recycling company TerraCycle's Cigarette Waste Brigade on Clean Up Australia Day in March this year, making Australia's second most littered item recyclable for the first time in the country.

When former prosecutor Anna Minns decided she wanted to pursue an environmental career, she started a Master of Environmental Law. Turns out the blog she launched while taking time out to care for her younger children was a greater asset for making the connections she needed to get started.